The forces of nature can have deadly and damaging consequences for societies and ecosystems that stand in their path. Early warning systems offer one of the best defenses against the adverse effects of climate, water, weather and geologic hazards, although far too often this realization is made after disaster strikes.

Heads Up! provides a useful review of early warning systems in operation today, while exploring a range of hazards including hurricanes, heat waves, floods, droughts, tsunami and volcanoes. With contributions from an international team of scientists, this practical handbook serves as a valuable contribution to our awareness and understanding of the role early warning systems play in disaster avoidance and reduction.

Biosafety, an issue that is relevant to numerous international institutions, offers an excellent case study for exploring and applying interplay in practical terms, as addressed in the book.

Is about the role of business decision-makers in sustainable development. An important read for academics, managers, and all students of business.

In this book, some of the world's leading Latin Americanists explore the ways in which the region has re-engaged globalization. What is the relationship of China and India with Latin America?...

One of the first attempts to better our understanding of unintended consequences of peacekeeping operations by bringing together field experiences and academic analyses.

This book investigates the challenges faced by UN transitional administrations in establishing the rule of law in Cambodia, Kosovo and East Timor. It also explores conceptual understandings of the UN's state-building agenda and speaks to broader questions about the role of external actors in disrupted states.

Focusing on a range of regional cases…the book evaluates the respective weight of national interest and internationalist (solidarity) considerations.

Editors:
Sumihiro Kuyama is a visiting professor at the United Nations University.

Michael Ross Fowler is a professor of political science at the University of Louisville.

The term accountability is increasingly heard at the United Nations. More than six decades after the organization’s founding, people continue to ask exactly how the UN is accountable for what it does, and many agree that enhanced UN accountability is a prerequisite to effective global governance. Nevertheless, the concept is elusive and rarely defined, and views have diverged on its proper meaning and various implications. The contributors to this volume identify key issues, raise pertinent questions, and suggest useful reforms regarding accountability in the context of the United Nations system.

Well-functioning political parties are essential components of democracy. But political parties in many developing democracies remain weak and underdeveloped. This volume examines.

2008 • PB • 6 x 9 • 428p
ISBN 13: 978-92-808-1156-8
US$ 39 (South Asia only)

The book advances the notion of regional institutionalism as a counterweight to the principle of sovereignty…

2007 • PB • 6 x 9 • 300p
ISBN 13: 978-92-808-1141-4
US$ 32 (South Asia only)

Need to consolidate peace some-times resulted in reluctance on the part of authorities to confront suspected perpetrators of human rights violations. This volume considers whether we are truly going beyond the ‘transitional justice’ debate.

The volume showcases a variety of methodologies that offer new perspectives on the use and relevance of vulnerability in economic development. Case studies focus on countries like China and India, countries in transition, small island states and failing states.

Investigating different institutional structures and discourses, contributors to this multidisciplinary collection illustrate concretely how to bridge the gap between discursive (post-structuralist, semiotic, philosophical, etc.) and socio-materialist accounts of gender relations and politics.

There has been a dearth of systematic examination of the way in which compulsory voting shapes attitudes, behaviour and outcomes of the political process. This book seeks to fill that gap by providing a comprehensive description, analysis and evaluation of compulsory voting as it is practiced throughout the world.

2008 • PB • 6 x 9 • 336p
ISBN 13: 978-92-808-1155-1
US$ 36 (South Asia only)

Editors:
Lynn K. Mytelka is a Professorial Fellow at UNU-MERIT in Maastricht, where she is Director of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Project, and a Distinguished Research Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She formerly served as Director of UNU-INTECH.

Grant Boyle conducted policy research on energy and the environment at UNU-IAS in Yokohama, Japan, before serving as Associate Project Coordinator of the UNU HFC Project from 2004 through 2006. He is currently completing a law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada.

Since the mid-1990s, the emergence of a hydrogen economy and the speed with which it will arrive have been vigorously debated. The debate has mainly been carried on among policymakers as well as oil and gas, automobile, fuel-cell and renewable energy firms in the countries of the North, where policies and the technological competences and competitive practices of firms have played a central role in shaping both the debate and the direction of technological change during this period. For developing countries, the current debate highlights the uncertainties involved in making choices about hydrogen and fuel cells in planning the development of their transport sector.

As a disruptive technology, dominant designs for the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen have not yet been established. Nor have performance characteristics been achieved that would make hydrogen proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells competitive with the existing combustion engine. Yet, costs are coming down and the efficiency and durability of hydrogen fuel cells (HFCs) are improving. How to deal with competing arguments that push the hydrogen economy into the longer term (2050) and those that place its advent in a shorter-term perspective (2020) is one key issue for developing countries today as they explore their options for the design of national energy, environment and transport policies.

This book examines UN actors, tools, and issues associated with the changing nature of the environment in which it operates; the ways in which it has and might respond to technological and political problems; and the questions and difficulties that arise for the world organization.

This book shows that, in Korea, soft security issues are as important as hard security matters and that the latter cannot be understood, or its dilemmas unravelled, without a clear engagement with the former.

Over two-thirds of the world’s refugees are trapped in protracted refugee situations, struggling to survive in remote and insecure parts of the world. This volume presents new thinking to address protracted refugee situations that incorporates security and...

This volume takes the reader on a unique journey through the evolution within the major world religions of attitudes and teachings related to the ethics of war. It systematically explores the historical roots and interpretations of norms within these traditions, linking them to the challenges of modern warfare. It prompts us to rethink....

The essays in this volume call attention to the less obvious threats to human security and how people and communities face them. Woven from the first-hand observations of life at various sites in East Asia, the narratives in these essays illuminate how uncanny the threats to human security can be.

Contributors to the book draw on experience and research from around the world on the nexus of gender, age, violence and small arms in developing and developed countries. Their findings feed into a number of recommendations for future policy formulation.